Like Clockwork
by SexySelena666
Summary: Actual story of the "Like Clockwork Exert". What would happen if Tessa went home to New York and met Clary and the gang, after holding Magnus up from a ball? How will Alec react to a new woman who has a deeper connection to Magnus than he? You can make requests as to what happens in the story like how everyone finds out stuff and so on...anywho! GO GO GO! READ AND REVIEW!
1. Chapter 1

The night was cold, and Tessa's breath curled out in front of her like the long stemmed cigarettes she used to smoke long ago. She wore the same clothes she did at a time even earlier than that; loose pants and a peasant's shirt. Her thick brown hair piled high on her head.

As she walked through the soft grass the slight squish that accompanied her steps told her it had rained recently. Swallowing her almost hysteric laughter, she reminded herself it rained almost constantly here in London.

The sparkling of the stars and the pale light of the moon reminded her of _his_ hair, of _his_ eyes….while the darkness surrounding them and the lighter blue of the horizon reminded her of _his _hair and _his_ eyes. Two totally different colors meeting and combining just like the boys they reminded her of.

Finally coming to the place she had steadily walked too she looked down on the two crumbling tomb stones resting side-by-side.

_William 'Will' Herondale_

_James 'Jem' Carstairs_

Placing the flowers she had gathered from Idris between them, she brushed her fingers over both names. She noticed her fingers were shaking.

"You know that lot dearie?" asked a voice.

Turning her head slightly Tessa saw the vapor-like figure of a ghost.

"Yes…..in another life…."

The ghost nodded in understanding, "So you're one of those warlocks that live forever?"

Tessa's smile was small and wane but there, "Something like that, yes."

The ghost put a hand right above Tessa's shoulder in an attempt to comfort the girl, "Well, I'll tell the rest of us to go for a long haunt…take all the time ya need dearie…"

With that the kind ghost dissipated and left Tessa to herself.

_Hello boys…._she though sadly. Kneeling despite the mud she worked her lip trying to reign in her emotions. She hadn't been back here since the time where the second stone had been placed here. She could still feel the cold rain beating down on her black clad shoulders.

Remembering that feeling of the rain brought tears to her eyes and angrily she blinked them away. Pulling a letter out of her pocket she looked at it again, it seemed Magnus was in New York of all places, and was helping some Shadowhunters.

"I'm goin back to New York…..Magnus said he'd love my help over there, being High Warlock is apparently hard work…"

Her voice wobbled but she stayed composed.

"I hear, some decedents of everyone are over there…..i'll look forward to meeting them. Maybe I'll even find the Fairchild's! I'm sure I'll recognize them by the hair."

Taking another steadying breath she brushed her magic charged fingers over the flowers, causing them to become planted in the ground between the stones instead of cut and laid there.

"Bye Will…..Bye Jem…"

With that she stood, turning her back on the past she so strongly held onto. But she didn't pause, she didn't wobble, she didn't cry….but she did whisper three last words.

"I love you…"

Then she disappeared in a flash of purple light and vapor.

**A/N: Whoo! Finished! Whoo! I got the first chappie! The second will most likely be the exert…..unless ya'll ask me to write something else for the next chappie and then I can just add the exert whenever…or I can even just put the exert in the middle of your requested chapter…again….doesn't matter. =P anyway, if you have any request of me, PM me or review…well review anyway…but oh well…See ya!**


	2. Chapter 2

I do NOT own the characters, only the plot~!

And this is the same thing as the excerpt, with…possible minor changes…love you all!

When Magnus heard a light knocking on his door, he was confused; he told Alec he'd meet him at the ball. Not have him pick him up.

But when he opened the door, in front of him was not the blue eyes and black hair of Alec Lightwood. Instead it was the icy grey eyes and chestnut brown hair of a friend he though lost...

Magnus looked at the seemingly young woman in front of him blinking at her disheveled appearance. He felt his heart strings pull at her glassy eyes. As he sighed and ushered her in, her numb sort of expression broke and tears poured down her cheeks.

When he had first seen her, a flash of her true self, so very long ago in old London, her lively spirit, had shocked him with its brilliance even through the cold exterior of Camille. That day, that shock of light in the middle of darkness was the day the finest of threads from her heart, had traveled out and caught his own in a deadly snare. That was the day he sensed the beginning of the bond that had lasted so long.

She sat on his couch pulling her long legs up to her chest. When she was alone, or with him, she insisted on wearing similar clothes to what she wore so long ago when she was young and in training.

Long black pants that were loose around the upper thighs and a white long sleeved shirt with loose flowery cuffs, so much like the clothes she had donned in the training room with him. Her dark hair that was normally pulled into a tight bun was down and long around her shoulders, tousled. The shirt that was originally tied at the top was undone showing a pale bare shoulder and the pants were splattered with mud on the knees.

Sniffling she took in his attire, her intelligent grey eyes quickly assessing he had somewhere to be.

"I-If you have s-somewhere to be it's alright…."

He looked at her, his catlike eyes soft and tender, to the clock, to his phone.

"No, No, it's quite alright, they won't miss me."

Actually, he knew of a certain shadow hunter that _would_ miss him but now, now that _she_ was here; he knew he couldn't leave her side.

She looked up at him with her wide grey eyes, nodding slowly as if reluctant to keep him from anything. He smiled fondly and kneeled in front of her, pulling her knees down. He unwrapped her arms and started rubbing her hands noticing that she had been gripping her arms hard enough that her fingers had lost circulation.

"Come on, let's get you to bed, you-"

"No!" she cried, sitting up and jerking forward, "No! The nightmares…..they'll…." she burst into a fit of tears.

He gently wiped her tears away, feeling secretly pleased she was able to cry in front of him. He knew how much she _despised _ crying, even more so in front of someone.

"It's ok my darling," he cooed smoothing his ringed and painted fingers through her hair, "I'll stay with you alright? If there's a nightmare I'll take it away, alright?"

She nodded and weakly wrapped her arms around his neck, seeing this as acceptance, he picked her up easily, folding her tinier frame into his arms and took her to his room.

Alec walked along with his friends, only half listening to their attempts to reassure him.

"Oh, come on! He's Magnus! He's probably doing 'High Warlock' stuff," said Clary crossing her arms over her less than plentiful chest.

"Oooorrr, he _could_ be sick…..wait….do Warlocks _get_ sick?" countered Simon.

With that revelation, they fell into their own conversation about the deep thought of 'Can Warlocks Get Sick?'.

Isabel put a hand on Alec's shoulder, "I'm sure something just came up."

He rounded on her, his anger or worry, finally showing itself "Then why the _hell_ didn't he call me?!"

"I don't know Al-"

"No! Just leave it alone!"

He stomped up to the door the slight crowd following him as he used a key from his pocket to open the door. He kept stomping through the house to make the point '_he was NOT happy'_.

Jace, who had kept quiet mostly- beside the occasional encouraging word, came up and went ahead of Alec out of sheer curiosity, his 'Jace Senses' as he liked to call them were tingling. Then he froze dead in his tracks.

The group, who had come up with him at the sound of him stopping froze as well.

There was Magnus, reclined in a chair beside his own bed, because his own bed was occupied by a brunette girl. They took in her appearance, long thick brown hair, pale skin, athletic physique, in short beautiful, but not even an ounce of makeup, which was a _mortal sin _to Magnus. She was also obviously clad in one of Magnus's blue silk button ups.

"Magnus!" Alec yelled.

Immediately he was up with his blue sparks charged at his fingertips, crouching as if intent on protecting the girl, who in turn whimpered and curled tighter into a ball under the blankets. He glared at them with enough venom that they all were surprised and went to her, smoothing her hair and running a slightly glowing hand over her head.

"Was yelling really necessary? You nearly woke her up," Magnus said turning to them, it was then that they realized he was dressed in what it appeared to be what he had planned on coming to the ball in last night.

"Where were you?" Alec said instead, not any quieter, and none of the group tried to correct him. They were all annoyed with Magnus too.

"Alec is right, you just didn't show up, you should have at least-" started Jace but Magnus interrupted with a growl.

"Boy, don't say what I should have and what I shouldn't have! I was ancient when you were but a sperm in your daddy's ball sacs! So don't you _dare_ lecture me!"

They were all taken aback by his tone. Why he was so resilient with what he did was right wasn't making sense.

"Oh?" snapped Isabel, "So, this…..bitch? Who may or may not be mortal from the looks of it- is more important than standing my brother?"

Then, before Magnus growled out his answer, Clary cut in.

"Izzy, I don't think she's mortal….look at her arms," she pointed to the girl's bare arms, revealed from the folded up sleeves.

Sure enough there were thin white scars up and down her arms, much like those from a Shadow Hunter's life.

"Your right Clary she's not…" Magnus said, obviously avoiding the topic of her and of Alec's importance rating.

Alec with blind rage said, "Oh, so you're sleeping with her too? Who the hell is she?"

Then a smooth, melodic voice cut in from the bed, "I'm Tessa Gray….a very old friend of Magnus's…..It's nice to meet you….."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: This follows the Excerpt…yay! I finally updated! I'm so sorry about that…it's been kinda crazy up in here!**

When the stranger spoke, Magnus immediately when to her side, sitting on the edge of his bed gingerly.

"Did we wake you?" he asked, feeling guilty about a multitude of things.

Despite her initial embarrassment for being relatively indecent infront of who seemed to be Magnus's new friends, Tessa smiled softly and ran a hand through Magnus's disheveled hair.

"No, no, I needed to wake anyway."

The group of Shadow Hunters –and Simon- were astounded. Who was this woman?

"So…are you sleeping with this one too?" Alec burst out again angrily, seeing red.

Isabel snickered slightly and mumbled a few choice words under her breath to Jace, who in turn snorted.

Magnus stood, looking angrier than any of them had ever seen. They all, even Alec took a step back.

He practically spat when he yelled in the language of Warlocks, the snapping and crackling nearly overwhelming.

But suddenly the woman –several of them refused to admit she had a name- was standing in front of them, her voice as sharp as a whip.

"MAGNUS! Watch your tone! You will NOT use those words in my presence! Do you understand me?"

Her long hair seemed to move in an invisible breeze and her knees were bent as if she were ready to pounce.

Magnus was so surprised his head reared up and he almost did a double take.

"Tessa…but…they…"

"And I got much worse in England when I was still young! Calm yourself Magnus, this behavior is unbecoming!"

He backed off, the atmosphere in the room becoming less dangerous and seemingly going back to normal.

Tessa turned around and looked at the group, "I'm terribly sorry to you all. If I had known you would have been coming I would have been up and decent for your arrival. And I am so terribly sorry that you had to witness such a fight between Magnus and myself. Magnus?" she turned half toward him expectantly.

"I am most certainly _not_ apologizing to them Tessa! You heard what they said!"

Her expression didn't change, though her dark eyebrows did seem to raise just a little bit more, "_Magnus_."

His lips pressed together in suppressed anger, "Sorry." He spat.

She turned fully back to the dumbstruck group.

"How about we all go talk in the parlor? I'll put some respectable clothes on and I'm sure Magnus would be more than happy to make something to drink, right Magnus?"

Magnus looked at her incredulously as if saying, _'You actually want to talk to them?!'_

Her answering look was obvious to everyone in the room, _'Now Magnus, this isn't up for debate.'_

The smile she gave them was absolutely serene, "We'll discuss this in a moment. I'll wash up and clothe myself and I'll be right out."

With that she turned and walked into another door, which Alec recognized as Magnus's personal bathroom.

With a scowl toward the bathroom door he looked at the group, a fuming, hurt and embarrassed Alec in particular.

"Come on….Tessa will be ready soon. I suppose I can put something together."

With that he turned around and walked back out toward the living room.

The five people looked at each other with more than a little confusion, anger, in one case hurt.

"Come on guys…we'll only find out what's going on one way…" Clary said, turning and following Magnus.

Personally, she was curious to see who the mysterious 'Tessa' was…and why when she looked at them, recognition flashed in her startling grey eyes.

**A/N: So? Wachya think? Did ya think it was ok? I finished this rather quickly so it's short and rather rushed but….oh well…you asked for an update…and you got an update…BE HAPPY MY MINONS! Anyway…anything you want me to add/takeout/change please tell me! Thanks so much for making it this far down!**


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